We are thrilled to announce the public release of the VVV Infrared Astrometric Catalogues (VIRAC) Version 2. The catalogues are based on data from the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) Survey and its extension, VVVX, and offer unprecedented precision in astrometric and depth.

The X-Shooting ULLYSES project (collection name: XShootU, ESO observing programme ID: 106.211Z) aims to provide near-UV to near-IR spectra for the massive stars targeted by the HST Director’s Discretionary programme ULLYSES. This first public data release (DR1) contains UVB and VIS X-Shooter spectra (wavelength coverage of 300-1020 nm) of 232 massive stars in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC, SMC). All stars were observed in STARE Mode, using 0.8” and 0.7” slits for the UVB and VIS, respectively, resulting in a resolving power of ~6700 in the UVB and ~11400 in the VIS. The observations were spread on 102 different nights from October 2020 to Juli 2021 and include 129 LMC and 113 SMC stars. Both individual and co-added spectra are included in the release. Generally, individual exposures (INDIV1D) are available as ancillary files, and co-added spectra with UVB and VIS merged (COADD1D) as the main science spectra, except for some of the binaries, for which only the individual exposures are provided.

This collection contains imaging data products for the observing programme CAFFEINE whose data were acquired with the ArTéMiS camera at the APEX telescope from 2018 to 2022. The 48 imaged fields cover a total area of more than ~ 2.5 deg², focused on the dense (AV > 10) parts of molecular clouds within about 3 kpc from the Sun. The released products include, per each field the 350 μm and 450 μm intensity maps with resolutions of 8” and 10” (half-power beam width), their related weight maps and multi-resolution H₂ column density maps. These datasets have been carefully calibrated and combined with Herschel/SPIRE data to recover large-scale emission that cannot be detected from the ground with ArTéMiS. The column density maps have been derived by including additional Herschel data at 160 μm and 250 μm and have a resolution ranging from ~8” in their denser inner parts (AV > 40) to 18.2” in the lower-density outer parts (AV < 40). For more details, refer to the accompanying release documentation or the publication by Mattern et al. (2024, A&A, preprint: 2024arXiv240515713M).

UltraVISTA is an ultra-deep near-infrared survey of the central region of the COSMOS field. A recent overview of UltraVISTA can be found in this presentation. The sixth and last UltraVISTA data release, “DR6” or “Legacy”, comprises stacked images in YJHKs and NB118 narrow-band filters, as well as single-band and dual-mode source lists. The data release also contains a five-band merged catalogue, created from the individual Ks-selected source lists. The release is based on the observations carried out from December 2009 to March 2023, corresponding to 99,845 individual images. The observations obtained since the DR5 release are mostly in the Y-band “deep” stripes in order to bring them to the same depth as the previously observed “ultra-deep” stripes. Thus, in this release, the depth is nearly uniform over the full field for the broad-band YJHKs filters. This release also uses GTO data obtained in 2010 in the J and the NB118 filters in the “deep” stripes.

The release of the MUSE gAlaxy Groups In COSMOS (MAGIC) survey (Programs 094.A-0247, 095.A-0118, 096.A-0596, 097.A-0254, 098.A-0017, 099.A-0246, 0100.A-0607, 0101.A-0282, 0102.A-0327, 0103.A-0563, PI T. Contini) is composed of 18 datacubes, observed with exposure times from 1 to 10 hours, with a median of 4.3 hours, using the wide-field mode, with a spectral sampling of 1.25 Angstroms and a spatial sampling of 0.2 arcsecond. The datacubes cover the wavelength range between 4700 and 9350 Angstroms and have an image quality better than 0.7’’ FWHM owing to good observing conditions and/or to the use of adaptive optics. The median 3σ point-source flux limit of an unresolved emission line reaches 3.6x10^-19 erg s^-1 cm^-2 and the median point source magnitude limit is about 28.5 at 5σ in white-light images. The MAGIC survey datacubes target 15 known massive groups and clusters at intermediate redshift (0.3 < z < 0.8), 14 of which being located in the COSMOS field and one in the VVDS field. This dataset is incredibly rich and contains more than one thousand of objects, from stars to high redshift galaxies, as well as extended nebulae.

Release of pipeline processed imaging and IFU products from ERIS 

The two newly available data collections, ERIS-NIX and ERIS-SPIFFIER, provide access to reduced scientific imaging products and 3D data cubes, respectively. Data of both collections are obtained with ERIS, the Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph, a general-use infrared integral field spectrograph and imager that utilises the adaptive optics on the VLT’s UT4.

ERIS-NIX:  The imager operates in the near-infrared range of 1 – 5 μm (J to Mp bands) and is designed to provide diffraction limited imaging.  The focus of this release is dedicated to the fully reduced products from the ERIS/NIX imager with the 13 or 27mas/pixel cameras (field-of-view of 27”x27” and 55”x55”). The other modes and data formats offered by NIX, coronagraphy, very short exposure “burst” mode cubes, and long-slit spectroscopy are currently not included in this release, but may be added at a later date. 

The first public data release of the HARPS Radial Velocities Catalog contains measurements obtained from 2003 to 2023 with the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) spectrograph installed at the ESO 3.6m telescope in La Silla Observatory (Chile).

The VISTA Extragalactic Infrared Legacy Survey (VEILS, PI: Banerji, Program ID:198.A-2005) is a deep J and Ks-band transient and wide-field survey being conducted using the VIRCAM camera with the primary goals of understanding the epoch of reionisation, the build-up of massive galaxies, and constraining the cosmological equation of state using both Type 1a supernovae and AGN dust lag measurements. The total VEILS surveyed area is 9 sq-deg of the extragalactic sky over three fields: XMM-LSS, CDFS and ELAIS-S1. The data acquisition for the VEILS survey was successfully completed in 2022 prior to the VIRCAM decommissioning.

The scientific objective of the XShooter ESO Large Program 1104.B-0370 INSPIRE (PI: C. Spiniello, 2021A&A...646A..28S), is to create the first catalogue of spectroscopically confirmed relics in the redshift range 0.1<z<0.5, which bridges the gap between the three local confirmed relics and the high-z red nuggets galaxies. The availability of this sample of objects enables to put stringent constraint on the predictions from simulations on the initial intense phase of star formation in passive galaxies.

The PENELLOPE Large Programme (Prog ID 106.20Z8) is a multi-instrument spectroscopic survey aimed at obtaining complementary data to the targets of the ULLYSES program. The latter is a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Director’s Discretionary Time that was executed in a three-year period, from HST Cycle 27 through Cycle 29 (2020-2022).